Boat Ride

I traveled to Jeju, Korea, with my family last month for a few days. We toured around in the island and also rode a ferry to Udo, a small island located at the northeast 3.5 km off the coast of Jeju. Inside the ferry, there was no chair for sitting, and the passengers had to take off shoes when entering the rest area and sit on the floor. Some of them sat while some were lying on it during the 15-minute boat ride.

石棹--Shizhuo

Shizhuo is a beautiful mountain area near Fenchihu in Chiayi County and has a lot of tea plantations and trails. It's a great place to have some nice tea and do some hiking. We stayed at a wonderful guest house which is located on the top of tea plantations and produces very good Alishan tea. We enjoyed the beauty of the nature while having a taste of some good tea there. It's an unforgettable place that we love to visit again in the future.

奮起湖--Fenchihu

Fenchihu, located in Chiayi County, Taiwan, is a place around 1400 meters above sea level at Alishan National Park. I traveled with some college friends to this area. Visiting its old street, we ate the famous lunch-box meals and donuts. Nearby there are some nice built wooden trails in the forest. They are quiet and beautiful. We enjoyed the walk there a lot. 

薪傳獎-The Competition of Chinese Culture and Art Heritage

This year, the final competition for the Chinese Culture and Art Heritage Award was held in Hsinchu at the park near where I live. It's a sunny day with a lot of heat. The participating teams, including popular lion dance, religious folk dance and folk music, had to perform and sweat a lot under the bright sunlight soon after the noon.

Hot weather

The life in Taiwan is generally good except the weather. It's very hot and humid in summer. Often the hair and body are wet because of constantly sweating. It's hard to adapt to such a weather in my first summer here after living abroad more than twenty years. I especially miss the dry hot weather in the Middle East. The heat there is more tolerable than in Taiwan. Now I am kind of living with fans and air-conditioners all day to keep cool in the summer.   

Green Island-Prisons

Green Island has been known as an isolated place for prisons and penal colonies. In the past, the government jailed many political prisoners there. Some of the prisons have become museums and are open to the public.

Green Island-People

The population at Green Island is less than four thousand, but the streets are full of tourists riding motorbikes, especially in the summer. Most visitors are from the mainland of Taiwan. They go there for its beautiful nature and for diving in the spectacular underwater to see coral reefs and colorful tropical fish.